I just read on the "ford barn" forum a guy has a 15 page manuel on how to build an adapter to bolt a s10/s15 T-5 5speed to the 8ba and 59a ford and merc flathead engines. Might be of interest to some. George Greenhough greenhough@telusplanet.net
Yeah I ordered a copy on ebay. It's been 12 days now, still waiting for it to get here. Dang slow cross border mail.
I've seen adapter for sale too. Now, why use a GM T5? What's wrong with a FORD T5? Sorry, but I don't put Chevy stuff on my Fords. But, I would like to build a 30s Chevy with a flathead Ford in it someday... regards, Doug
From what I've read the S-10 is a plus because the farther forward keeps it where it should be instead in the middle of the seat.
Here is how they line up. The S-10 is about 6 inches aft of the regular ford floor shift. The T-5 with the shifter on the very end would be useless in a hot rod. That is unless you drive from the back seat.
Why build your own? Save the labor and let Offenhauser build it for you. You can get the adapter from Offenhauser or Wilcap. Or go to Cornhusker and buy the whole kit, including the clutch plate and bolts. Everything that's been said about the T-5 in this thread so far is correct. The S-10 is the transmission, or rather the tailshaft housing, is the one to look for. It mounts the shifter the farthest forward of all the T-5's. Everything else would be under the seat in an early rod. T-5's have been used in Camaros, Firebirds, Mustangs, S-10's, etc. With varying gear ratio sets, input shafts, front bearing carriers, etc. Oh, yes watch out, some of them won't take a lot of input torque. Check out the Tremec website. They are the company that was formed when Borg-Warner was bought out. I've looked at the T-5 to flathead swap a lot. Phil, aka AZAV8
Because lots of folks like to do things themselves & have more talent than dollars! You also need the corresponding top cover to go with the tailshaft housing. And the tailshaft housing is not necessarily a one-for-one swap on every T5 due to differences in speedometer drive gear placement on the shaft. Yeah, but more torque than the average street flatty will put through them - especially on narrow bias ply tires. The torque rating isn't the absolute limit either... Here are a couple of useful threads: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=20583 http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=39127
Mark Kirby from MCF did one up using an S-10 tailshaft on the Ford gearbox and it works great in the 34 Ford.I don't know if he has any plans on how to do it or not.
I just put an S10 T5 in my 49 Ford using the Flat-O kit ($$$). It's hard to beat the kit prices unless you have an in with a machine shop
here's a wicked little tip...t-5's came on JEEPS...the shifter not only looks like a 39,it's mounted the furthest forward of all t-5's. it is within a 1/2 inch of the stock location.you can also use only the top plate and shifter from the jeep on a s-10 t-5.
Maybe this will help all of you in your search.g'luck .swaZZie http://www.inliners.org/Jack/t5_page.html
I have several in's with machine shops...and even a foundry if i need to go that far. it looks like a very simple adapter. Its one of those things were i'll probably buy it once and then just take note of all the important specs and build myself the next time.
I used the Offy adaptor. All I can say is 4.11 gears, dual carbs, big cam and 25 mpg. Wht would anyone not use the 5 speed? BTW....Runs well over 100 mph also.
who sells the offy adapter? speedway was all out of adapters and didn't know if when or if they'll get more.
that seems to be a pretty good alternative, using the S10/15 trans that is...especially if you have a factory O/D ford or merc, and blew your trans....they are kinda hard to come by these days in good form to say the least. i just blew my R10 overdrive a few months ago in my 50 merc. recently picked up an S10 trans in mint shape on the cheap. i had planned on taking the 53 flatty out of my merc, and using the S10 5spd to mate to some overhead valve motor (and save my bench seat as is), but then saw the cornhuskers site, and must say it did look interesting. i dont think interesting enough to keep rolling with the flathead unfortunately, but still. i think thier site is www.cornhuskersrodandcustom.com or something, they have the trans adapter kit and some real neat other flathead stuff.
is you're t-5 out of a s-10? i've been trying to find one out of a 80's v8 camaro. they're supposed to have a higher overdrive. i dont know how true that is though.
http://www.cornhuskerrodandcustom.net/ sorry bout that, my previous post had the wrong site address for them.
question for the guys who have done this swap, is it really worth it to buy the complete kit $600 from flat-0 or $480 from corn husker (website said 450 but phoned they said price went up) or I just got off the phone with speedway again, and it appears they're stocking there own version of the offy adapter for just $179.00 but you need to buy a couple other parts...so in the low $200 range. plus clutch disk etc I just wonder cuz a clutch disk is not much $ for an s10 and the fact cornhusker wnats $150 for a slavecylinder and a bent bracket to mount it makes me wonder if its one of those kits i'll just shake my head at when i open the box leaving me feeling violated.
I am trying to figure out a good answer on this. The offy to chev adapter seems to work ok, or you can get the $145.00 adapter plate that uses the front cover of a flathead ford 4 speed. This cover is the same bolt pattern as an early ford block or bellhousing and the adapter bolts to it to compensate for the position of the mounting bolts and the length of thre input shaft. Al this stuff seems to be easy to purchase right now, relatively low cost for the amount of work that is saved to run an overdrive.
I weighed a lot of different options but went with the Flat-O kit. The other good option I considered was to get a T5 pilot bushing machined into the flathead flywheel, allowing you to run a pure stock S10 clutch setup. The flat-o kit supposedly works with your stock linkage, so i don't know how that would all come together. I think an Astro van clutch disc works better than the S10 disc because the flywheel bolts hit the clutch springs on the disc. Lots of good info at shoeboxford.com and fordbarn.com.
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